Nineteen Years and One Day Later
by FG100
Summary: Ron and Hermione eagerly await the arrival of an owl from Hogwarts, but not all of the news that arrives is expected.
1. Nineteen Years and One Day Later

Hermione subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief as the owl flew in through the open window. She hadn't expected it to come the previous evening; Rose would have been far too busy enjoying the feast, but every moment without it had been torturous as she waited to hear that her firstborn was okay.

Her husband already had the scroll in his hand by the time she made it across the kitchen and although she tried to take it from him, he took advantage of his height, playfully holding it up out of her reach.

"Ron!"

"You always get to read things, today is my turn!"

She frowned at him, but hung on every word as he began to recount Rose's first impressions of Hogwarts.

"...the hat had only been on my head for a few seconds before it sorted me into Gryffindor -" Ron punched the air. "I knew she'd do it. Well done Rosie."

Hermione glared at him, but he didn't stop grinning.

"Don't be like that. You wanted it just as much as I did, don't pretend otherwise."

"I'm not saying I didn't, but I've already told you that it doesn't matter. You'll end up putting too much pressure on Hugo if you make it out to be a big deal."

Ron laughed. "Hugo will be fine. You worry too much. Anyway, I want to know what Rosie liked best about the feast."

His eyes returned to the parchment, but he fell silent. Instead his grin turned into a frown and he relinquished the letter to her.

Nervously Hermione scanned the first few sentences ...lake...magical...beautiful...sorting...hat...Gryffindor...feast... until she got to the point of contention... Albus has been sorted into Slytherin! She looked up at Ron, who was eying her warily.

"What does it matter?" She gave a hollow laugh. "Isn't that what we wanted to achieve: unity, tolerance, freedom from prejudice? The stigma around Slytherin house disappeared after the war. People think differently now. "

Her husband looked unconvinced.

"But what about..."

"Harry will be just fine," she stated, sounding more convinced than she felt.

They returned to the rest of the letter, eager to hear more about Rose's first day, but both kept a watchful on the fireplace, knowing they might soon be needed.

...

It was less than an hour later before Harry's face appeared.

"I imagine Rosie told you?" He was trying to keep the edge out of his voice, but he looked troubled.

"What does it matter, Harry?" Hermione busied herself with making a cup of tea, before Ron suggested getting the Firewhisky out.

"Surely we're well past house politics now? How many Slytherins do you work with, invite round to dinner? Didn't you name him for one of the bravest men you knew, a Slytherin? It really doesn't matter, Harry. It's just a house."

She said it all a little too quickly, as if she wasn't being entirely honest. But she was, wasn't she? They had fought to change things and to make life better; every day she worked to promote cohesion and to counter people's prejudices. Surely she didn't have any of her own?

The tiniest thought nagged at her as she remembered how desperate she had been not to be in Slytherin herself and as she thought of all of the negative things they had said about people form that house over the years. She didn't like to admit that she had been as relieved as Ron when Rose had stated her destination.

Harry sighed. "Ginny said exactly the same thing. But...Slytherin? Ravenclaw would have been fine, or Hufflepuff, but Slytherin? We hated them, we hated what they stood for. We've never hidden that fact. I know things have changed, but I don't know if I can convince Albus that being there is okay."

"Of course you can mate, he's your son. You love him, unconditionally, whatever he does, wherever he ends up. He listens to you above anyone else. Let him see that you're okay with it and he'll be fine too."

The words shocked Hermione. It wasn't like Ron to be so intuitive.

"I know, but he's going to be all by himself...with all those kids whose parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles we've locked up..."

Hermione stalled for a moment. Harry raised a good point. Part of the relief in Rose being sorted into Gryffindor stemmed from the knowledge that she would join so many of her cousins there, who would be able to keep an eye on her. She remembered only too well what it felt like to have no one, to feel completely alone.

"Rose will be in some of his classes though..." Hermione offered reassuringly. "And I'm sure the other Slytherin first years are lovely." She glanced at Ron, warning him not to say anything as her mind, as she imagined his did, wandered to the image of Scorpius Malfoy.

"James will be horrendous about it too." Harry continued, oblivious to their attempts at reassurance. "He'll never let him live it down. The teasing at home will be a nightmare. He's been winding him up about the sorting all summer; now this has happened I dread to think what things will be like."

"Could Teddy have a word?" Ron suggested. "James listens to him better than anyone."

"Maybe." Harry wrung his hands before glancing at his watch. "I'd better get back. Ginny has a game to report on this afternoon; I need to be around to look after Lily. I'll catch you later."

...

The second night they spent without Rose in the house seemed even stranger than the first. She regularly disappeared for a night to stop with various cousins or her grandparents, but two nights felt more unusual. Hermione was well aware that Ron's form, lying next to her, was just as awake as she was.

"What are you thinking?" she whispered into the darkness.

Ron chuckled. "I'm wondering how on earth we stop Albus from introducing Rose to any of his Slytherin friends. I'm willing to be highly supportive of Albus, but if she thinks that she's bringing a Slytherin home as a potential suitor, she's got another thing coming."

Hermione groaned, hoping for her own sake that there were some lovely boys in Gryffindor.

...

A/N: I wrote this a while ago, with every intention of posting it today. I'm not entirely convinced about how it turned out so may tweak it a little in the future.

As I was driving home from work someone read the Harry/ Albus moment from the Epilogue and I am now panicking that my Harry is completely out of line with book Harry here. However I also believe that for all he reassured Albus that Slytherin was fine, he probably wouldn't have expected it and would have been rather worried about Albus being there and the prejudices that some of his peers may have.


	2. Nineteen Years and Three Days Later

"Things have got worse."

Ron sat down opposite Harry in the Leaky Cauldron, proffering a drink. He looked like he needed it. His friend had turned up at the shop at the start of his lunch break, insisting he needed to speak to him.

"I couldn't tell you in front of Ginny or Hermione," Harry continued. "They'd have to be all noble about it."

Ron had a terrible feeling he knew which words were about to come out of Harry's mouth next. Instead of speaking however, Harry handed over a piece of parchment.

Ron began to read, skipping over the niceties until he got to the crux of it.

"Bloody hell."

"I know."

Both men stared at the parchment for a moment, taking sips from their pints.

"What are you going to do about it?"

"What can I do about it?"

They returned to their drinks, and their silence.

Their glasses were half empty before they resumed their conversation.

"I guess you're regretting saving his life now?" Ron joked weakly.

Harry gave a hollow laugh. "I might do yet."

A worried look crossed his face and he went to speak, before reigning the thought back in.

"What is it?"

"Nothing."

Ron wasn't to be so easily stopped, however. Auror training had made him a powerful interrogator. Eventually his stare wore Harry down.

"You don't think Malfoy will persuade Scorpius to treat Albus badly, just because he's my son? Pretend to be his friend, then screw him over somehow?"

Ron stared at the amber liquid in his glass, choosing his words carefully. "He's been quiet for years. If he was out for revenge, surely he would have done something by now? He's civil to us when he sees us around, he's disassociated himself with the old crowd; maybe the rumours are true and he really is a changed man? Besides, he could never have anticipated this, that Albus would have..." He stopped abruptly. What had Hermione said? Don't bring attention to it.

Harry swallowed the rest of his pint. "We're the reason his father ended up in Azkaban. He must hate me. We ruined his family, we –"

"You saved his life. You made sure that Narcissa got her pardon," Ron said forcefully. Desperately he tried to think about what his wife would say at this moment. Something eloquent that included the words unity, equality and coercion, probably. What she wouldn't do was launch into a tirade about what an arse Malfoy was, what atrocities his family had caused...

"Another drink?"

"I think we need it."

...

"Let's say they stay friends..." Harry began, four pints in, when he was much more willing to share the thoughts that plagued him. "What happens when they find out what happened in the war? Because they will, sooner or later. What happens when Albus finds out that his best friend's grandfather almost got his mother killed? Or even when he finds out how much we hated each other? How on earth is he going to cope with that?"

Ron pulled himself from his darkest thoughts; those screams within Malfoy Manor that still gave him occasional nightmares. He tried to put himself in Harry's shoes for a moment, thinking what it would be like if Rosie had told him she had made friends with that boy. He shuddered.

"Then you tell him that times have changed. That they were dark times and things have changed a lot since then. That you worked bloody hard to make the world a better place, that we all did. That day after day people have to deal with the consequences of that war...but that in the years that followed we found peace and we have all learnt to live together."

Ron could feel himself turning green with the sentiment. They were Hermione's words, Percy's maybe, but definitely not his. He could never completely forgive them, the other side, for what they had done. How he would love to be left in a room with Malfoy, to be able to scream at him, to punch him, to break him, to punish him for what his side had done to Hermione, to his mother, to Fred.

Harry gave a hollow laugh. "You believe that less than I do. Isn't it all a lie, Ron? I can't forgive him, not completely. Or at least I can't forgive his family. The family that tortured and killed so many people we knew..."

Ron swallowed hard, desperately trying to say something purposeful. He thought of the small blonde boy he had seen standing on the platform two days earlier; a boy who looked so much like his father. No, not completely like his father. There had been a moment as the train was pulling away when he had broken eye contact with Rosie, just for a second or two, and he had seen the boy again. He stood out, because he was one of the only ones not waving. Rosie's face had been a picture, nervous yes, but so full of excitement, ecstatic to finally be on her way to a place she knew so much about. Scorpius hadn't shared that look. The boy had looked dejected, disappointed. Ron found himself wondering what Malfoy had said to him before he got on the train, whether he had bothered to stay and wave him off.

"Albus isn't exactly like you, so there's nothing to say Scorpius will be just like Malfoy either. I guess we can't blame the kid for what his father is like. Think about Sirius, or Andromeda...they came from families steeped in Dark Magic and they turned out okay. I reckon Albus is a pretty good judge of character. Maybe young Scorpius is alright after all?"

Harry looked at Ron curiously. "Sometimes you sound exactly like Hermione. It's slightly disconcerting."

Ron shrugged, feeling rather pleased with himself. If only his wife were here to witness this. Surely she would be impressed that he was being so compassionate. Who had the emotional range of a teaspoon now?

"Besides, if Scorpius or Malfoy do something you don't like, you've got plenty of witches and wizards at your disposal to do something about it!" Ron's eyes twinkled. "Surely your job must come with some perks?"

Harry gave a small smile. "Fair point." He took another sip of his drink. "You know one thing that is making me feel slightly better about this? Picturing the look on Malfoy's face when Scorpius tells him Albus is his new best friend."

Despite their underlying concerns, it took quite a while for both men to stop laughing.


End file.
